(Reuters) -U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Alnylam’s drug to treat a rare and deadly heart disease on Thursday, allowing the entry of a new type of medicine in a market dominated by Pfizer’s blockbuster Vyndaqel.
The injectable drug, branded as Amvuttra, was approved to treat adult patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), in which faulty transthyretin proteins accumulate in the heart, potentially causing the organ to fail.
Alnylam is banking on the success of the drug, chemically known as vutrisiran, to reach profitability and invest in its next generation of treatments.
Amvuttra will compete in the market for ATTR-CM treatments, which is expected to cross $11 billion in revenues by 2032, according to Global Market Insights.
Alnylam’s drug was initially approved in 2022 to treat nerve damage related to ATTR-CM. This new approval makes it the first drug to be authorized to treat both forms in which the disease manifests itself.
Amvuttra helps decrease the production of the disease-causing protein at the source, unlike Pfizer’s Vyndaqel and BridgeBio’s Attruby, which stabilize the production of transthyretin protein.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru and Sneha S K; Editing by Alan Barona)
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